Macaronea (Tifi Odasi poem)

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Macaronea or Carmen Macaronicum de Patavinisis ("Macaronic Song from Padua") a comical poem by 15th century poet Tifi Odasi. It is considered to be the earliest example of macaronic verse, and the genre's namesake.

The year of first printing is not indicated on the book itself, but is believed to be 1488 or 1489. The author's pen name is given as "Tifi" in the frontispice, and as "Tifetus" in an acrostic that precedes the text.

The title of the poem is thought to come from maccerone, a kind of pasta or dumpling eaten by peasants at the time ^[1]. Macaronea tells of a prank applied by a band of university students (macaronea secta) on an apothecary. It is written in a mix of Latin and Italian, in hexameter verse (as would befit a classical Latin poem). It reads as a satire of the bogus humanism and pedantism of doctors, scholars and bureaucrats of the time.

The poem was a success; it was reprinted several times, and inspired many other Macaronea in the following decades.

The following excerpt^[2] describes the preparation for a magical rite where a duck would be served:

Original text Mercurio fuerat lux illa sacrata, sed ille ad strigariam zobiam spectaverat aptam. Illa etiam nocte coniunx cavalcabat Herodis et secum strige, secum caminat et Orcus; Hanc expectavit tamen, oca tirante la gola.

English translation That day was sacred to Mercury, but he waited for the thursday, the proper day for witchcraft. Herodes's wife was horse-riding that night, and with her went the witches, and with her the orcs. So he waited that night, already savoring the duck.

[edit] See also

• Catinia by Sicco Polenton
• Repetitio Zanini by Ugolino Pisani
• Tosontea by Corrado of Padua
• Baldo by Teofilo Folengo
• Macharonea medicinalis by Gian Giacomo Bortolotti
• Macharonea by Vincenzo Baglioni

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Notes on Italian literature at the Italian Ministry of University and Research